Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Robbed

Well, it's as I feared. My company has decided that employees who were unable to get to work during the recent transit strike will have to use vacation time for those days.

So thank you, thank you very frickin' much, Transit Workers' Union, you selfish jerks. I have nothing to do with your silly negotiations, there was nothing I could do for you, no way I could help you, no influence I have over the MTA and people like me are the ones who end up paying for your idiocy. Thanks to you, I spent paid vacation time stranded in my apartment.

13 comments:

I think that's beside the point. It's the union's fault that companies even had to make these kind of decisions. My accrued time off ought to be mine to do with as I see fit, and if I'd elected to take a day off and lie on the couch twiddling my thumbs (which I'll probably do at least once during February!), that's my prerogative -- but it ought to be my option. Furthermore, I look at accrued time off as cash; if I were to leave my job for some reason, I get that time paid out to me. The TWU just took a day's pay away. I wouldn't be such a curmudgeon about this if I thought the strike was valid...but I truly think it was a catastrophically terrible decision.

Consider billing the TWU for what you would've made in the days that you were working? I didn't actually lose any money, apart from a couple of cab fares, for which I didn't get receipts, but had I receipts or substantial losses, I would certainly be billing them, and possibly suing them in small claims court. (P.S.: I love Berlioz. How can you not? I do think I love Verdi more, though.)

If you and your co-workers were unionized, then your employer wouldn't even dare try such a tactic -- after the fact. In fact, in the past, i've found employers more than willing to negotiate when approached by a majority of the workers -- with or without a formal union of workers.

I wouldn't be so sure about that, anon. When I was informed my pay could be docked for missed time while I evacuated from a hurricane (with workplace closed!), my union suggested -- get this -- docking the pay over several months rather than all at once. Wha?

I'm so glad I no longer work there and therefore am no longer in that union. Unions are only as good as the people in them.

Now wait, I believe your company had a choice in how it dealt with people not being able to get in to work. Do you really think it's the TWU's fault you bosses made that decision? Thay had NO other options? I can think of numerous alternatives that don' t involve taking away vacation days. In the end it's the employer who decides to pass the buck onto their own workers by taking away things like salary or vacation days.

While Courtney is right in saying that not all unions are 100% effective at re-couping such losses, I'd hope that you and your co-workers would have had a bit more leverage in how the company dealt with its losses during the strike.

Not that I think what the TWU did was completely fair either. I'm just saying the solution is not to stigmatize the concept of unions more than it already has been this century.

Well, I think my company made the wrong decision for a variety of reasons, but I'm not going to press the point because I respect them -- honestly -- and love my job and it's just not worth getting into. And I maintain, they would not have HAD to even entertain the thought if the union hadn't gone on strike.

Hey Gay Patriot West, thanks for visiting. Come by more often -- my fan Little Cicero could use some help in the dissent department. I kinda doubt I'll ever abandon my left-wing tendencies, though.